It's baffling that the Hoover Dam was built in five years over 80 years ago, but repairs are unable to be completed on Washington Street – a barely quarter-mile stretch of roadway connecting Del. 141 to U.S. 9 in New Castle – that has been under a state of perpetual disrepair for three years now and there seems to be no end in sight.

Hundreds of citizens have been inconvenienced, and adding insult to injury, commuters familiar with this area will readily attest that the pavement is worse now than ever before. Using the Washington Street project as a yardstick, we can expect President Obama's and Gov. Markell's much-touted infrastructure improvements to perhaps be completed by the next millennium.